Radio broadcasting has been known since at least the 1920s. With the advent of the internet, many radio stations now transmit their programs as continuous digital media streams over the internet. These programs can therefore be listened to from anywhere on the earth through the internet.
Traditional over-the-air radio broadcasting may be affected by the radio transmission conditions, such as the weather conditions, the position of the receiver, and the surrounding. For instance, if a vehicle carrying a receiver enters a tunnel or an underground parking, the signal quality and strength may be affected or, worse, the reception may be erratic or even interrupted. These problems may also arise when receiving internet radio over a wireless connection.
Internet radio has also its own specific problems. Internet radio transmission usually implies a unicast transmission of a media stream (in the case of the internet, a stream of data packets), causing on the network a load which is proportional to the number of receiving points, i.e. proportional to the number of destination hosts. It may therefore be difficult to provide continued services to a number of users in situations where, for instance, in a traffic jam, many vehicles are each equipped with an internet radio receiver connected to the internet through the same access points.
It is desirable to improve the processes of transmitting, receiving and playing media streams, notably by improving the quality of the service without increasing, or at least without excessively increasing, the implementation and architecture complexity and the associated equipment costs.